Lucie Berard 1883

Here is Pierre-Auguste Renoir's oil on canvas painting of Lucie Berard. Painted in 1883, Renoir captures Lucie at a time when childhood was increasingly idealized in Western culture. This portrait reflects the 19th-century bourgeois values, emphasizing innocence and beauty. Lucie is carefully dressed, her gaze direct and poised which tells us about the performance of childhood and gender. Renoir doesn't only paint a portrait of a child, but also the social expectations projected onto her. "Why shouldn't art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world." Renoir once said. The image evokes a sense of nostalgia, yet it also speaks to the constructed nature of identity. Lucie embodies the ideals of her time, but we might wonder about the space between the representation and her own experience. This painting serves as a mirror reflecting both personal sentiment and broader cultural attitudes towards children in the late 19th century.